Sunday, October 31, 2010

Still Sleepy, Still Know That It's Not My Strength

  I am very sleepy. And now on to more important things than my complaining...........

  I would like to write that there's is no way at all that I would have been able to last throughout this past week on my own strength. God definitely was working.........and seriously, like no way at all in a thousand years. It's been that busy and energy consuming. But it has been worth every ounce of strength..that was not my own.

  Yesterday morning I helped Carmen, from Ecuador, study for her citizenship test. I was also able to talk to two other people who are also trying to pass the (absolutely ridiculous) test. The supervisor who was there to answer questions, hand out materials and the likes, had also (recently maybe?) been naturalized. Let me just say, that after hearing all of their stories and the stories of others who had been through the citizenship class, that the process for becoming a citizen is even more corrupt, unfair, and unpredictable than all my preconceived notions had even imagined. (on a side note: I would like to please ask that nobody contend with me on this. I know we all have our "opinions", but I would really rather not have to feel depressed, annoyed and frustrated after having to read the before mentioned "opinions". Especially after talking to people who have actually been through or are currently going through this process.) But anyway. Carmen and I exchanged phone numbers and she will call me after she takes the test to tell me whether or not she passed. Please be praying that she does, she is the sweetest woman and knows more than I do about the process of government in this country, but that does not guarantee her citizenship.

  In the next room was a computer class, and Kalsang (who I mentioned before, but spelled her name wrong) was there!. I talked to her for a little bit. And the day before when we had been talking in the Bible class, I found out that she didn't know what a Bible was. She had never seen one, or heard of one. She thought that the stories that were being told in the class were true, but she didn't know where they came from. I gave her a New Testament and showed here the different stories that she knew and that they had all come from this book. She was really excited about it, she didn't have any books in English to practice reading and she had no idea that all that she had been learning came from this one book. (the reason for this being linguistic. Her English is still coming along.) I wrote my e-mail address on the inside of it for her so that we could stay in contact. Please be praying for her as well.

 Well I have to go now, but everyone, please continue to pray for what is happening here and I will give more happenings and stories later.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Brain..is.....shutt.ing........down......

  My brain is dead at the moment. I would love to blog right now and share all that has happened, but I am incapabale of doing so at the moment.One of the subways was closed for construction and that altered our route to the point where instead of spending an hour and a half on one train, we spent a little over two hours on several different trains. I am exhausted and praying for some energy for later, once that happens, then I will blog..............unless I find myself doing something else. :D

Friday, October 29, 2010

Details (bulleted)

> I like the subway. It's relaxing and it's crazy fun to people watch. I don't why, but it just is.

> Yesterday we helped Urban Impact with their free English classes. One in the morning and a bible study English class at night. I was able to get to know two of the women who take these classes. Kellsung (sp?), who is from Tibet, and Miriam, who is from Guatemala. They were both so sweet and we had a ton of fun being silly and trying to understand each other. Miriam's been taking these English classes for about a month, but she's been in the U.S. since '93. (Which is my birth year :) .) Kellsung's been taking the classes off and on for about year, but I'm not sure when she moved here. Kellsung was in the morning and evening class, and I met Miriam in the evening Bible study class.

> The Hindus worship many many many many many......many "gods". It's really sad. And they do it mostly out of fear that they'll be destroyed if they don't.

> I don't understand why they're so many people who go on and on about how rude new yorkers are. I mean I'm sure that they're are those here who are rude, (just like every other place in the entire world), but on a whole, I just don't see it.

> There is a beach in New York.

> I am not a huge fan of cold beaches.

> Pastor Josh spilled water all over himself on the subway.

> I've been having an amazing time, and would really like to come back up here in the summer to do some more work. If at all possible.

> I would love it if everyone would continue praying. :D

I Know It's Friday.....

I know it's Friday and I didn't do a post about yesterday, but it is coming. We're about to start our day and head out, so I just have a little time to do a brief synopsis of what we did yesterday. Hopefully I will end up having the time today to update the blog about yesterday in detail, as well as today.

Brief Summary: 

   Yesterday we took the subway up to Queens (about an hour long ride). Went to go teach English. Went on a prayer walk, which included a Hindu Emporium. (we were in a place nicknamed "little India", more details later). We did some office type work to help out the ministry here. Then got dinner and  helped with the evening ESL class, then left at around 9 pm? I wanna say.

  Today I know we're are going to end up doing more construction oriented work and possibly visiting with an Indian pastor, but I'm not sure of all the details. I'll share more later.

  And please continue praying. God's been listening and we watched him bless what was done yesterday and it was amazing.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Wednesday, October 27, 2010.....Post #2

  I have just taken a shower and gotten ready for bed and am currently enjoying relax/free time.........exciting right? But I am taking this opportunity to share more details about all that is going on and how the trip up here went. :D

 So this morning started out with waking up slightly before 5 am, and wasn't as bad as I thought. Got picked up at 5:45 by Pastor James and Mrs. Angela, then went to the church to wait for Mr. James and Mrs. Becky. Once we were on the road Pastor Josh stopped at the first Starbucks that we came to in Cary. (which of course is a great big surprise) ; ) We drove up through Virginia and the capital, and got to see the Washington memorial, the Lincoln memorial, the Pentagon, and went over the Potomac, which was pretty cool. Then we went up through Maryland (where we stopped for lunch at Panera), New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
 
  Once we got to New York we had to drive through Staton Island.......No lie, some of the Graffitti was ridiculously awesome. We got to Brooklyn to the Missions House we're staying at which, as I said before, is run by the sweetest people ever. It's Barry Lawrence, his wife Lynette, and their two daughters.

  We walked up to the subway station to get passes that'll last us all week and then got ourselves some dinner. We stopped at an organic grocery store that's on the corner of the next block, so that I could get some dinner to eat............it's amazing, I want one in Sanford. P. Josh and Mr. James went to grab sushi and Barry got pizza for every one, while Mrs. Angela, Mrs. Becky, and I went back to the house.

  We got to talk to and get to know Barry and his family while we ate dinner and some of the work they have been doing up here's amazing. Sadly though, my typing skills and limited time do not allow me to share all that they're involved with.

  Tomorrow the main thing, that is planned, is that we'll be working with muslims, teaching them English and trying to share the gospel with them. So please be praying for that.

       on a side note, I was informed on the drive up here that we would be singing, publicly............please pray for that as well.....

more later....

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

  Right now I am waiting for my phone to charge and the rain to settle before we head out, sooooo I am using this time to explain some things......including the previously used "we".   ^

  I'm on a missions trip to NY with my pastor, Mr. James, Mrs. Becky, and Mrs. Angela. We're staying in Brooklyn at a missions house. (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called.) The people who run it are super sweet and nice. For the next few days we'll be pretty busy working and doing what we can to help. And if everyone could be praying for God to bless what we are doing here, that would be awesome. I'll blog more about details and the like later. :D

Friday, October 8, 2010

Tell Me 'bout the Days When You Were Seventeen......♪♪

So this is just a little (very little) "what I'm being inspired by today" post.
               
This Photo
via Sma Kee on Flickr as seen via Matisse Color
 
This amazing video. (Which inspired the title of this post.)

 
And this photo
 
Photo by Lissy Elle
 
 
 
  On another note. I have to get up early tomorrow and take the S.A.T's. I'm not really dreading it, but I'm not looking forward to it either. I'm almost indifferent......(that probably isn't good). But maybe I'll be able to muster up some false motivation and as my dad says, "False motivation is motivation."
 
........anywho....goodnight all!!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Singing to You Over My Shoulder......♪♪

  I've given up on my kind-of-sorta-not-really-but-it'd-be-cool-dream of updating the blog on a daily basis. I have also decided to not do the whole, "ok. Now what crafty thing should I blog about......" way of blogging. From now on I am just going to blog about whatever is on my mind. So say good-bye to false promises of a daily blog, and hello to randomness that might have you worried.

Confession about my true feelings for Math:

  I love math. It's unorthodox, but true. Even when I was little I would do math in my head to help me fall asleep. I still do math problems in my head, but usually only when I'm upset, because it helps me to calm down. Now math class is a-whole-nother issue. I hate math class. It is sooooo boring. I have so many memories of people slamming their books on my desk because I was sleeping.

And in regards to the title of this blog post I give you.....*drum roll*...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE-4ekeMv0Q

That's pretty much it for now.